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Sharron Hannon
Gov. Zell Miller--known nationally as “the education governor”--will return to the University of Georgia, his alma mater, as a Distinguished Professor of Higher Education and the first holder of the Philip H. Alston Jr. Chair after his term of office ends in January 1999.
The announcement was made July 29 by UGA President Michael F. Adams in a ceremony in the Chapel.
Mrs. Elkin Goddard Alston, whose $1 million gift will fund the  chair in honor of her late husband, attended the event, along with her son, John G. “Jimmy” Alston, a member of the UGA Foundation board of trustees; her daughter, Elkin Alston Cushman; and other family members.
“This is a particularly appropriate tribute to Philip Alston, whose devotion to higher education and to the University of Georgia was extraordinary,” said Adams. “We are grateful to Mrs. Alston for her generosity in creating this chair and are especially pleased to have a person of Gov. Miller’s national stature as the first chair holder. We welcome his return to his alma mater and know his presence will have an important impact on campus and beyond.”
Philip Alston, a prominent Atlanta business and civic leader, was U.S. ambassador to Australia during the Carter administration and served on the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. He died in 1988.
Alston received a bachelor’s degree from UGA in 1932. He later served the university as president of the Alumni Society and as a trustee and secretary of the University of Georgia Foundation. He also helped create the Presidents Club to recognize major donors.
“Philip loved this university and spoke often of its importance to the state and region,” said Mrs. Alston. “He would have been delighted to have his name coupled with that of Zell Miller, for whom he had a high regard as then-lieutenant governor and as an educator.”
Miller earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UGA and also completed two years of work toward a Ph.D. He taught history and political science as a teaching assistant at the university in the late 1950s, then held a faculty position at Young Harris College in his hometown before turning to a political career that has spanned four decades.
At UGA, Miller will join the faculty of the Institute of Higher Education, established in 1964 as a service, instruction and research agency. Miller is expected to be involved in teaching undergraduate and graduate students both through the institute and through the College of Arts and Sciences and has committed to teach a freshman seminar in the fall of 1999.
He also will play a role in the creation of a new series of colloquia and roundtables planned by the institute to focus on significant issues in higher education, and is expected to take part in two ongoing institute activities: the Governor’s Teaching Fellows Program and the Faculty Development in Georgia Program.
The Governor’s Teaching Fellows Program was established by Miller three years ago to provide higher education faculty in Georgia with expanded opportunities to develop teaching skills and learn to use emerging instructional technologies through a year-in-residence program at UGA or through participation in symposia offered during the summer.
The Faculty Development in Georgia Program gives faculty with demonstrated competence in teaching an opportunity to continue their graduate education on a full-time basis. Miller himself was a participant in the program when it was first created in 1964.
Miller also will have an opportunity to pursue his research interests in Southern politics and history.
At the announcement event in the Chapel, Miller said he hopes to impact student lives in the way E. Merton Coulter, a legendary history professor, influenced his.
“I came to UGA planning to be a lawyer,” Miller recalls, “but during my first quarter I took a course in Georgia history with Dr. Coulter and was mesmerized by the way he could teach. I took every course he taught.”
One of Miller’s still-cherished possessions is a 1980 note from Coulter predicting Miller would be governor some day. Ten years after the note was written, Miller proved him right.
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